Enhanced low noise amplifier

ABSTRACT

This amplifier ( 10 ) for radio frequency signals comprises a circuit adapted to amplify the signals within a first range of frequency ( 19 ) and is characterized in that said circuit is also adapted to simultaneously attenuate the signals within a second range of frequency ( 18 ).

This application claims priority from PCT/IB2006/003622, filed Dec. 14,2006 and from European Application EP 05292674.8, filed Dec. 14, 2005,both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns amplifiers for radio frequency (RF)signals and more especially, so-called low noise amplifiers andcorresponding receivers.

Conventionally, RF signals are received and processed through aso-called analog front end, part of this processing includes amplifyingthe signal by low noise amplifiers.

However, the frequency band is always more occupied and signals tend tobe closer to each other in frequency. For example, digital televisionsignals extend up to 750 MHz while GSM signals start at 900 MHz. Due tounavoidable non-linearity, the receivers happen to process unwantedsignals from nearby frequency ranges.

These unwanted signals are conventionally rejected by use of notchfilters which are adapted to reject specified ranges of frequencies.These filters are conventionally placed downstream from the low noiseamplifiers.

Accordingly, unwanted signals are still amplified before being rejected.This leads to a sub-optimal amplification as the energy of theseunwanted signals are amplified. This leads to lower signal amplificationto avoid saturation of the amplifiers and therefore higher noise for thesystem.

Inverting the order of these components to place the low noise amplifierdownstream from the notch filter would lead to a loss of useful signal,as the useful signal is reduced by the filter while the noise is at thesame level.

Accordingly, conventional receivers must be designed to balance the lossof useful signals and the sub-optimal amplification.

Some existing devices, such as the one described in the documentEP1054510, are designed especially for amplification and have someattenuation as a side effect without any selectivity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aim of the present invention is to solve this problem by providingan enhanced low noise amplifier and a corresponding receiver.

To this effect, the invention relates to an amplifier for radiofrequency signals comprising a first stage being connected between theinput, a ground and an output and a second stage being connected betweenthe output and a direct voltage source, and wherein said second stageprovides a direct current path with a first inductor, the circuitfurther comprising a first capacitor connected in parallel with saiddirect current path and a second inductor series-connected with a secondcapacitor wherein the values of said first and second inductors and ofsaid first and second capacitors are set to have predetermined ratios toamplify the signals within a first range of frequency and simultaneouslyattenuate the signals within a second range of frequency and whereineach of the couples of inductor and capacitor allows setting ofrespectively the central attenuation frequency and the centralamplification frequency.

The invention also relates to a corresponding receiver.

Thanks to the fact that the amplification of a determined range offrequency and the attenuation of another separated range of frequencyare carried out simultaneously by the same circuit, the signals to beamplified are never attenuated. Likewise, the signals to be attenuatedare never amplified.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thedescription illustrated by the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 represents the circuit of an amplifier according to a firstembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a representation of the transfer function of the circuit ofFIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 4 represent the circuits of two other embodiments of theinvention, and

FIG. 5 represents a balanced embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 represents a receiver 2 adapted to receive through an antenna 4,radio frequency (RF) signals, like digital television signals using theMPEG2 format in a DVB-H or DVB-T transmission.

An analog front end 6 is connected down stream of the antenna 4. Theoutput of the analog front end 6 is fed into a demodulation unit 8applying the relevant demodulation or equalization processing to derivean information signal S supplied to other processing circuits with whichthe receiver 2 is associated.

Along with other components, the analog front end 6 comprises anenhanced low noise amplifier 10 according to the invention.

This low noise amplifier 10 is a single circuit adapted to amplify adetermined range of frequency and simultaneously attenuate anotherseparate range of frequency. It comprises a first input stage 12connected between the input IN of the amplifier, the output OUT and theground GND.

The input stage 12 is conventional and can comprise for example a singleCMOS or bipolar transistor connected between the input, the output andthe ground as represented in FIG. 1. The input stage 12 can alsocomprise an amplifying transistor, a cascode connected transistor and aninductor or other biasing circuits or any well known input circuits.

The output OUT of the input stage 12 is connected to a direct voltagesource V through a second stage 13 performing the amplification andproviding the current for the output signal.

In the first described example, the second stage 13 comprises twoseries-connected inductors 14 and 16 providing a direct current path toperform the amplification. A capacitor 18 is connected in parallel withthe inductor 16 connected to the voltage source V.

Another capacitor 19 is connected in parallel with both inductors 14 and16, i.e. between the output and the direct voltage source.

The capacitors 18 and 19 are both tuneable components while theinductors 16 and 19 have determined values.

Typical component values for this embodiment are: inductor 14, 10 nH;inductor 16, 4 nH; capacitor 18, 12 pF; and capacitor 19, 2 pF.

This circuit 10 performs simultaneously the amplification of adetermined range of frequency and the attenuation of another range offrequency.

More specifically, the inductor 14 and the capacitor 18 are in seriesresonance to attenuate the signal. Simultaneously, the overall inductorformed by inductors 14 and 16 and the capacitor 19 are in parallelresonance to amplify the signal.

In the example, it is possible to set the center value of the amplifiedrange of frequency by tuning the value of the capacitor 19. Furthermore,it is possible to set the center value of the attenuated range offrequency by tuning the value of the capacitor 18.

The transfer function of this enhanced amplifier is represented withreference to FIG. 2.

This transfer function has a peak corresponding to the center value ofthe amplified range of frequency which, in the example, is set around650 MHz. Furthermore, the transfer function has a notch corresponding tothe center of the attenuated range of frequency, which in the example isset to 850 MHz.

Accordingly, this enhanced amplifier 10 allows receiving and amplifyingsignals up to 750 MHz while simultaneously attenuating signals at upperfrequencies and especially, GSM signals between 824 and 915 MHz.

With reference to FIG. 3, another embodiment of the enhanced filter isrepresented.

In this embodiment, the second stage 13 is symmetrical to the onedescribed with reference to FIG. 1. It comprises two inductors 20, 22series-connected between the direct voltage source V and the output, acapacitor 24 connected in parallel with the inductor 20 connected to theoutput and a second tuneable capacitor 26 connected in parallel betweenthe direct voltage source and the output.

In this embodiment typical component values are as follows: inductor 20,4 nH; inductor 22, 10 nH; capacitor 24, 12 pF; and capacitor 26, 2 pF.

The inductor 22 is in series resonance with the capacitor 24 and theinductors 22 and 20 are in parallel resonance with the capacitor 26.

This circuit also present a transfer function similar to the onerepresented in FIG. 2.

As in the previous embodiment, it is possible to set separately thecenter value of the amplified range of frequency and the center value ofthe attenuated range of frequency by setting respectively the values ofthe first and second tuneable capacitors 24 and 26.

In a third embodiment of the invention, represented with reference toFIG. 4, the second stage 13 comprises an inductor 30 connected betweenthe direct voltage source V and the output and providing a directcurrent path. It also comprises an inductor 32 and a tuneable capacitor34 series-connected between the direct voltage and the output andanother tuneable capacitor 36 connected in parallel with the firstinductor 30.

In this circuit, the inductor 32 and the capacitor 34 are in seriesresonance while the inductor 30 and the capacitor 36 are in parallelresonance. This circuit performs the same function as the ones describedpreviously, but as no direct current goes through the inductor 32, itsdesign constraints are reduced.

Typical component values for this embodiment are as follows inductor 30,4 nH; inductor 32, 7 nH; capacitor 34, 5 pF; and capacitor 36, 2 pF.

As previously, this embodiment allows setting a central value for eachof the attenuated and amplified ranges of frequency.

In a fourth embodiment described with reference to FIG. 5, the deviceuses a balanced signal.

Accordingly, the input stage 12 is connected between a positive inputIN+ and a negative input IN− and provides two signals. This input stageis conventional and comprises the same kind of circuitry as thosedescribed with reference to FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Each output of the input stage 12 is fed into a respective second stage13 connected to the same direct voltage source V. These second stages 13are identical and can be any of the circuits described previously. Inthe example described, the second stages are similar to the onedescribed with reference to FIG. 1. Each of the second stages has twoseries connected inductors 40 and 42. A tuneable capacitor 44 isconnected in parallel with the inductor 42 connected to the directvoltage source and another tuneable capacitor 48 is connected inparallel with both inductors.

The device thus has a positive output OUT+ between the input stage andone second stage and a negative output OUT− between the input stage andthe other second stage.

Each of the inductors 40 is in series resonance with the correspondingcapacitor 44 and each of the overall inductors formed of inductors 40and 42 is in parallel resonance with the corresponding capacitor 46.This device also have a transfer function similar to the one representedwith reference to FIG. 1. However, the use of balanced signals allowsmore linearity as the even harmonics of the positive and negativesignals compensate with each other.

Typical component values are as follow: inductors 40, 10 nH; inductors42, 4 nH; capacitors 44, 12 pF; and capacitors 46, 2 pF.

In all embodiments, the distance between the center of the attenuatedrange of frequency and the center of the amplified range of frequency isdetermined by the values of the components. It is then possible totranslate the entire transfer function to higher or lower frequencies bysetting the value of the tuneable components.

However, the second stage as describes with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5allow more independency in the setting of amplified and attenuatedranges of frequency, each tuneable component acting only on one range.

One aspect of the invention is the use of predetermined ratios betweenthe inductors and between the capacitors.

The value of the first inductor in the direct current path and the valueof the second inductor of the circuit are set to ensure the correctresonances between these components and the rest of the circuit.

With the correct predetermined ratios, the circuit has both a parallelresonance for amplification and a series resonance for attenuation.

Advantageously, the value of the second inductor, namely any of theinductors 14, 22, 32 and 40, is set to be not more than four times thevalue of the first inductor, namely any of the inductors 16, 20, 30 and42. Even more preferably, the value of the second inductor does notexceed 2.5 times the value of the first inductor.

When the two inductors are in the direct current path the value of thefirst inductor should not exceed 10 nH. In the embodiment correspondingto FIG. 4, where the direct current path comprises only the firstinductor, then the first inductor 30 should be set between 0.3 nH and 30nH. The second inductor 32 should be set to a value less than 100 nH.

Similarly, the values of the capacitors are also set to ensure thecorrect resonance. Advantageously, the value of the first capacitorconnected in parallel between the direct voltage source and the output,namely any of capacitors 19, 26, 36 and 46 and the value of the secondcapacitor, namely any of capacitors 18, 24, 34 and 44, should be at themaximum 1 to 10. Accordingly, the value of the second capacitor shouldnot exceed ten times the value of the first capacitor.

Event more preferably, the value of the second capacitor should notexceed six times the value of the first capacitor.

When the two inductors are in the direct current path the value of thesecond capacitor should not exceed 20 pF. In the embodimentcorresponding to FIG. 4, where the direct current path comprises onlythe first inductor, then the first capacitor 36 should be less than 100pF and the second capacitor 34 should be between 1 and 100 pf.

The use of such predetermined ratios allows having some selectivity inboth amplification and attenuation. If the ratios are not meet, one ofattenuation or amplification becomes a side effect or even disappearsand in any case is not fine tuneable anymore.

When setting the values of the components one needs to set first eitherthe inductors or the capacitors. Then, the other components values willbe set depending on the aimed ranges of frequency, each couple of oneinductor and one capacitor setting the central frequency for either theamplified range or the attenuated range.

Of course, other embodiments of the invention are also possible. Forexample, in one embodiment, the tuneable components are formed ofseveral components each of them series-connected with switch formed by atransistor. The overall value of the components is determined by thecontrol of the transistors thus allowing digital control of thesetuneable components.

It is also possible to use tuneable inductors together or instead oftuneable capacitor to set the central value of the amplified and/orattenuated ranges of frequency.

1. Amplifier for radio frequency signals comprising a first stage beingconnected between the input, a ground and an output and a second stagebeing connected between the output and a direct voltage source, andwherein said second stage provides a direct current path with a firstinductor, the circuit further comprising a first capacitor connected inparallel with said direct current path and a second inductorseries-connected with a second capacitor wherein the values of saidfirst and second inductors and of said first and second capacitors areset to have predetermined ratios to amplify the signals within a firstrange of frequency and simultaneously attenuate the signals within asecond range of frequency and wherein each of the couples of inductorand capacitor allows setting of respectively the central attenuationfrequency and the central amplification frequency.
 2. Amplifieraccording to claim 1, wherein said direct current path comprises onlythe first inductor and said second inductor and second capacitor areseries-connected between the direct voltage source and the output. 3.Amplifier according to claim 1, wherein said direct current pathcomprises said first and second inductors series-connected between thedirect voltage source and the output and said second capacitor isconnected in parallel with one of said two inductors.
 4. Amplifieraccording to claim 1, wherein the value of said second inductor is notmore than four times the value of said first inductor.
 5. Amplifieraccording to claim 1, wherein the value of said second capacitor is notmore than ten times the value of said first inductor.
 6. Amplifieraccording to claim 1, comprising a first and a second tuneablecomponents, the value of the first tuneable component determining thecenter of the first range of frequency and the value of the secondtuneable component determining the center of the second range offrequency.
 7. Amplifier according to claim 1, comprising a first and asecond tuneable component which values determines together incombination both the center of the first and second ranges of frequency.8. Amplifier according to claim 6, wherein at least one tuneablecomponent is formed of several elementary components eachseries-connected with a controllable switch, the control of saidswitches determining the overall value of the tuneable component. 9.Amplifier according to claim 1, wherein said circuit is adapted toreceive a single input signal.
 10. Amplifier according to claim 1,wherein said circuit is adapted to receive a balanced input signal andto output a balanced signal.
 11. Amplifier according to claim 7, whereinat least one tuneable component is formed of several elementarycomponents each series-connected with a controllable switch, the controlof said switches determining the overall value of the tuneablecomponent.
 12. Receiver for digital television signals comprising ananalog front end and a demodulation unit, characterized in that saidanalog front end comprises at least one amplifier for radio frequencysignals comprising a first stage being connected between the input, aground and an output and a second stage being connected between theoutput and a direct voltage source, and wherein said second stageprovides a direct current path with a first inductor, the circuitfurther comprising a first capacitor connected in parallel with saiddirect current path and a second inductor series-connected with a secondcapacitor wherein the values of said first and second inductors and ofsaid first and second capacitors are set to have predetermined ratios toamplify the signals within a first range of frequency and simultaneouslyattenuate the signals within a second range of frequency and whereineach of the couples of inductor and capacitor allows setting ofrespectively the central attenuation frequency and the centralamplification frequency.
 13. Receiver according to claim 12, whereinsaid direct current path comprises only the first inductor and saidsecond inductor and second capacitor are series-connected between thedirect voltage source and the output.
 14. Receiver according to claim12, wherein said direct current path comprises said first and secondinductors series-connected between the direct voltage source and theoutput and said second capacitor is connected in parallel with one ofsaid two inductors.
 15. Receiver according to claim 12, wherein thevalue of said second inductor is not more than four times the value ofsaid first inductor.
 16. Receiver according to claim 12, wherein thevalue of said second capacitor is not more than ten times the value ofsaid first inductor.
 17. Receiver according to claim 12, comprising afirst and a second tuneable components, the value of the first tuneablecomponent determining the center of the first range of frequency and thevalue of the second tuneable component determining the center of thesecond range of frequency.
 18. Receiver according to claim 12,comprising a first and a second tuneable component which valuesdetermines together in combination both the center of the first andsecond ranges of frequency.
 19. Receiver according to claim 17, whereinat least one tuneable component is formed of several elementarycomponents each series-connected with a controllable switch, the controlof said switches determining the overall value of the tuneablecomponent.
 20. Receiver according to claim 18, wherein at least onetuneable component is formed of several elementary components eachseries-connected with a controllable switch, the control of saidswitches determining the overall value of the tuneable component. 21.Receiver according to claim 12, wherein said circuit is adapted toreceive a single input signal.
 22. Receiver according to claim 12,wherein said circuit is adapted to receive a balanced input signal andto output a balanced signal.